Railroad Forums 

  • Weekend dual modes on the Port Jeff branch

  • Discussion of the past and present operations of the Long Island Rail Road.
Discussion of the past and present operations of the Long Island Rail Road.

Moderator: Liquidcamphor

 #1491983  by RestrictOnTheHanger
 
I don't remember seeing this before, looks like 2 round trips on weekends from Port Jeff have been turned into DM trips to Penn.

Trains 6607 and 6609 (8:44am and 10:13am) from Port Jeff now make all stops to Huntington, wait there for about 10 minutes, then proceed to Penn with the normal weekend stopping patterns west of Huntington.

Those then turn for 6656 and 6658 (2:55pm and 4:25pm) from Penn doing the same thing in reverse.

How successful are these runs? Is it temporary for the holiday season or is this a permanent change?
 #1492014  by workextra
 
It’s a test for this timetable and if it works out well will likely be permanent in the off season. As the LIRR has many years too late realized that they are not getting the most out of the DMs.
It’s absokutely foolish to have them sit cold for the weekend when they could make a regularly schedule run.
Hopefully one day they will let them run w/o an MU connection time delay in UN. And rather as a passenger express, all stops to Hicksville, Jamaica, New York.
In the summer season unless they buy or lease other equipment this will not be an option.
 #1492028  by SwingMan
 
What's funny is the MUs that they run in place of are now non-revenue equipment trains.

In a perfect world those trains would be local cleanup trains to the DMs, which should really be limited stop express trains after Hicksville the same way Montauk/Speonk/Patchogue trains are express after Babylon.

It's not just about how full the trains get, it's also how quick they can actually make that run to where it actually benefits the riders east of Huntington the same way those east of Babylon are treated.

I think the big objective should be to get more through service on the Port Jefferson Branch, whether it's a DM like these are or just more through trains to Jamaica. Especially in the school season, the Stony Brook University loads on Sundays for example could be greatly shifted if there were more thru trains from Jamaica. The South Shore has always gotten the service, but no one has batted an eye to the Port Jefferson Branch and the Main Line in general.

The railroad needs more positive changes like this one, something that is logical to every party involved.
 #1492032  by njtmnrrbuff
 
While I welcome those two weekend direct trains to Pt. Jefferson, I don’t understand why they have to sit at Huntington Station for 7-10 minutes. If they are direct and making the same stops west of Huntington as a regular electric train on that line, don’t add time at Huntington. This is just like a NJT NJCL Express train heading to Bay Head spending extra time in Long Branch on the timetable as indicated.
 #1499992  by RestrictOnTheHanger
 
This weekend, with bridgeplates in effect between Penn and Jamaica, there were alerts sent out that the DMs would bypass local stops and connections would be made via electric trains stopping there instead.

Why would this be done? Do the C3s not line up properly with the bridgeplates?
 #1503173  by MACTRAXX
 
Everyone:

Noticed some interesting runs on the 3/16 NYC St. Patrick's Day Parade special schedules.
There will be one through dual mode round trip from Port Jefferson and Speonk as extra trains:

#6681 from PJ at 8;30 AM, All stops to Hicksville, then Mineola, Jamaica, Woodside - arriving Penn Station at 10:30 AM.
#6682 4:25 PM from Penn Station then Jamaica, Mineola, Hicksville and all stops to Port Jefferson arriving 6:23 PM.
This extra round trip is the only one scheduled (instead of two) on Saturday 3/16 from the PJ Branch.

#8791 leaves Speonk at 8:55 AM, All stops to Babylon then Jamaica and Penn Station only arriving at 11:11 AM.
#8792 leaves Penn Station at 4:15 PM then Jamaica, Babylon and all stops to Speonk arriving 6:19 PM.
This round trip is the only extra trains shown on the Montauk Branch schedule.

In case anyone is unaware the NYC St. Patrick's Day parade rule is "Never on Sunday". When March 17th falls on a Sunday as it is this year
the parade is scheduled for Saturday March 16th. One year ago (2018) St. Patrick's Day was on a Saturday.

MACTRAXX
 #1504757  by PlaneLoverA380
 
I have ridden on these runs and find them to be pretty crowded. I guess I would consider them a success, I’ve seen a considerable amount of people waiting for them.
 #1506442  by Riverduckexpress
 
Some minutiae from last month's timetable changes - the March 2019 schedule retimed most eastbound Huntington/Port Jeff trains on Saturdays and Sundays. The retiming allows the two westbound weekend dual-mode trains (now 8:53 AM and 10:23 AM from Port Jeff) to leave Port Jeff 10 mins later, so that they'll stop at Huntington and leave right away, without waiting for 10 minutes. However, most westbound trains from Huntington (and the connecting scoots from Port Jefferson) still appear to keep similar or the same schedules. Accordingly, despite being retimed, the two eastbound weekend dual-modes (now 3:07 PM and 4:34 PM from Penn) still end up lingering in Huntington for around 10 mins. This seems to be to maintain the meets in Kings Park between the eastbound dual-mode trips and the westbound scoots leaving Port Jefferson at 4:09 PM and 5:40 PM, which are mostly unchanged from the previous schedule. Notably, however, there were a few minutes added to the schedule for certain scoots - now, all westbound scoots after the two dual-modes are scheduled for 29-30 mins between Smithtown and Huntington, compared to 26 mins in the previous schedule (amusingly, in the current schedule, the morning westbound trips, including the two dual-modes, are only scheduled for 24, 25 or 26 mins from Smithtown to Huntington.) Granted, between East Side Access track work and Main Line 3rd Track construction, maybe it'll be a while before all the kinks are worked out.

Here are the current March 2019 and previous January 2019 schedules for comparisons.
 #1508185  by Riverduckexpress
 
PlaneLoverA380 wrote:So July 14 will be the last weekend DM run?
No. May 19 will be the last weekend dual-mode run. The schedule from May 20 to July 14 will have no weekend dual-modes as RestrictOnTheHanger mentioned. If the Montauk Branch sucking up all the diesel equipment for its weekend summer service is the cause of the weekend dual modes going away, than it's safe to assume that if the weekend dual modes do come back, it will likely be in September after summer service winds down.